TWO of north Hampshire’s MPs have been appointed to the new coalition Government.

Prime Minister David Cameron has appointed North West Hampshire MP Sir George Young as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal, while Basingstoke MP Maria Miller becomes Minister for the Disabled.

Sir George is one of the few MPs in the new Government with ministerial experience. He was appointed a junior health minister last time the Conservatives came to power in 1979, was Financial Secretary in the Treasury and became Secretary of State for Transport in John Major’s Government of the early 1990s.

The bicycling baronet, as he was nicknamed in the 1980s for his support of cycling, said he was delighted to become Leader of the House – the person responsible for organising Commons business.

He said: “It was a job I shadowed in opposition and I have been a keen advocate of the reform of how Parliament works. I welcome the opportunity to put some of those ideas into practice.”

Sir George, 68, who remembers with little affection the small majority of the Major Government, added: “Being Leader of the House in a coalition government with a decent majority might be easier than with one-party government with a small majority.

“There is a real determination among ministers of both parties to make the coalition work and to get the country back on the road to recovery.”

The office of Lord Privy Seal dates back about 700 years, and its occupant used to hold the monarch’s seal, but it is now a largely ceremonial title.

Mrs Miller’s first step into government comes after she was shadow minister for the family when the Tories were in opposition. She is now in the Department of Work and Pensions, which will be headed by former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith.

Mr Cameron, whose son Ivan had cerebral palsy prior to his death last year aged six, asked Mrs Miller to become Minister for the Disabled.

Mrs Miller, 46, told The Gazette: “He reminded me it’s an issue very close to his heart and something he took great personal interest in. It needed someone who could handle it carefully and he felt I would be able to do that.”

Mrs Miller, said she had gained an insight into disabled issues from a Basingstoke and District Disability Forum hustings she attended during the election campaign.

“I will certainly be using that experience in the new role I have in the Government,” she said.